SpaceX calls off rocket launch at last minute

However, any hopes that the firm might finally achieve this historical goal have been dashed by a statement in which it admits a “successful landing is not expected” tonight.

SpaceX on Thursday called off its second attempt in as many days to launch a Falcon 9 rocket on a satellite-delivery mission because of a technical difficulty, a launch commentator said.

“Team opting to hold launch for today”, SpaceX said Wednesday in a tweet.

SpaceX is struggling with a new fueling system for a version of the Falcon 9 flying for just the second time.

Almost all of the fuel had been loaded from the holding tank and into SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket when the launch was halted, so the rocket will need to be emptied.

“Rocket and spacecraft remain healthy”, the company said in a message posted on Twitter as the delay was announced. Musk’s rocket exploded after one of its landing legs malfunctioned during the last attempt in January.

Now, the mission is scheduled to start at 6:46PM ET (11:46PM GMT) on Thursday 25 February, in a launch which will be livestreamed on SpaceX’s website.

On top of the rocket is the SES-9 satellite, one of three that SpaceX hopes to launch this year for Luxembourg-based SES, one of the world’s largest satellite operators with more than 50 in orbit.

The mission, which SpaceX is carrying out on behalf of SES, could provide internet access to remote areas of the Asia-Pacific, including India, where about 1 billion people have no internet access.

Nailing the landing is huge for SpaceX and space travel as a whole because Musk has previously said he believes reusing rockets – which cost as much as a commercial airplane – could reduce the cost of traveling to space by a factor of 100.

The company landed its first booster successfully in December at Cape Canaveral, after the first launch of this new-model Falcon 9.